Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana

Safeguarding, promoting and controlling the interests of the sectors linked to the Italian fashion. These are the main goals and functions of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. The nonprofit association has regulated the Italian fashion panorama for over 50 years, since its foundation in 1958. Under its name we can find the most important names of the Italian fashion industry, from famous fashion houses to textile manufacturers or accessories producers, assembled together to represent the whole Italian fashion system, from the weaving factory to jewelry and even cosmetics.

Given the growing importance that the made-in-Italy fashion came to have in the Fifties, and later Sixties, the major exponents of the sector decided to set up an apolitical organization with the only aim to defend their rights, keep up with the news of their specific market and promote the made-in- Italy label all over the world, becoming its guarantee for quality and sophistication. The greatest figures of the sector during these years appeared at the bottom of the memorandum of association: from Emilio Federico Schuberth to Giovanni Battista Giorgini, who was named President.

The statute of the Camera Sindacale della Moda Italiana, this was its first name, was intended to regulate and protect the creative activities of the Italian fashion sector, in the local as well as international market, promote the made-in-Italy, facilitate the relations between fashion, its industry and the complementary economic sectors as well as collaborations built with Italian ministers and government organizations to realize financial projects or legislative programs.

1962 was the year of the formal birth of the modern Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI), which substituted the one governed by Giorgini. The intention of the Centro Romano Alta Moda, which planned it, was to create an organism that reflected the original idea of the Camera Sindacale della Moda Italiana, but with an eye to all of the contemporary organizations that were interested to the Italian fashion sector. Public corporations, chambers of commerce and Italian fashion associations participated to the drafting of the certificate of incorporation of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.

The Italian fashion association has always followed the same objectives during the years, recently crossing the line of 50 years of activity. To honor the international prestige that the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana has reached, especially in the last decade, the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and the major exponents of the government met the President in charge of the CNMI, Mario Boselli, as well as its honorary President, Beppe Modenese, two leading figures in the Italian fashion history, in occasion of the celebrations held for the “made-in-Italy quality day”.

Famous Italian fashion houses from Gucci to Antonio Fusco, from Salvatore Ferragamo to the Biagiotti Group, Versace, Missoni or Ermenegildo Zegna, can be found in the list of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana associates, being for themselves guarantee of quality and icon of Italian style. Working with such names has meant for the CNMI a continuous search for the right ways to promote and spread the made-in-Italy brand all over the globe, as a synonym of refined elegance. But next to these already famous Italian fashion houses, one of the main aims of the association is to help new emerging talents, to bring them to success giving them an adequate showcase where to be presented.

For that same reasons, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana is the principal organizer of Italian fashion events and shows: from the prêt-a-porter shows of the Milan Fashion Week, with its Milano Moda Uomo and Milano Moda Donna events, to events held in Rome under the name of AltaRoma (Alta Moda), such as the TV show Donna Sotto le Stelle. All the main fashion events we see in Italy are organized under the supervision of the Italian fashion association, its signature being present everywhere.

But it doesn’t offer only the showcase for new talents, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana also offers formation and training opportunities for young Italian designers, allowing them to get well known by an international public. To do that, it collaborates with the Italian Minister of Industry and with that of Foreign Trade to promote and realize programs of study in Italy and abroad favoring the creative aspect and image of Italian fashion.

Recent agreements with foreign countries, the one signed with France in 2000 is just the most relevant example, have confirmed the leadership of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana on the worldwide fashion panorama. The cooperation between the fashion capitals of Paris, New York and London with Milan and Rome has contributed to further spread the Italian fashion fame and to establish the empire of Italian fashion maisons among the world’s scenery.